Canadian labs have no clue what NK cells are. Furthermore if you ask them to do bright NK function test, they will totally freak on ya!
Bright vs dim NK cells are as far as I know research tests.
It would be great to know if NK cell count and function are indeed biomarkers of disease or not, since nothing is totally set in stone. In fact some here have a totally normal NK function- but are sick. Does that mean they have a different illness? Does that mean that NK function is not a biomarker? Who knows?
In australia any sort of nk function test is research only and is my only experience but in america others seem to be able to get nk function tests outside of research setting. it was once only Klimas patients but it seems more are getting this done, dim and bright cells i agree would freak them out, lol.
I agree NK function isnt 100%(what is?) but its the best we have, plus there are other immune tests that could be used, SOC had normal nk function but showed cd8 dysfunction i think from memory. I think any sort of nk or t-cell function abnormality or high or low t-cells counts can be a biomarker of cfs although i think the nk function seems to be the most common found in research studies. I think this is just more evidence for us that we have cfs/me and not something else and maybe need to keep searching for answers.
I had a lymphocyte function test which came back normal, my nk cd56 numbers are normal but my nk function and bright nk cells are low and my T-cells(cd3,4,8) are high. I dont think all of us would have the same profile, plus it may also depend on what infections we have as we all seem to have different types of overlapping infections.
cheers!!!